Richmond senior Beth Beindit goes for a shot as is blocked by a group of Armada defenders during a basketball game Friday, Jan. 6, 2015 at Richmond High School.(Photo: JEFFREY M. SMITH / TIMES HERALD)Buy Photo

With two of the BWAC's defensive juggernauts meeting, both Armada and Richmond knew the girls basketball game would be low-scoring.

Just how low, exactly? 26-22 in Armada's favor, which is enough to keep the Tigers atop the BWAC standings as them and Croswell-Lexington each have one conference loss. Richmond had a chance to stay in the top clouds, but Friday night's loss gives it three BWAC losses – its second against Armada, too.

"I knew it wasn't going to be an offensive night," Armada head coach Mark Carlson said. "But we pride ourselves on defense, and when the offense isn't going well we can defend and keep ourselves in a game like that."

As Carlson said, the offense didn't steal the show, but the final five minutes is where the offense shined for Armada.

In the final five minutes, the Tigers buried five free throws. On the flip side, the Blue Devils missed five free throws on six attempts in that same span.

The biggest of Armada's six made field goals came with just under two minutes left, when senior Kelsey Gustafson banked in a 3-pointer to take a 23-19 lead. With her 6-of-16 free throw shooting, she totaled up a game-high 13 points on the night.

Richmond was paced by senior Carlie Thueme and her eight points.

A key moment in the fourth came when Armada's bench had a technical foul thrown its way, which had the whole bench looking around and wondering who said what to the official. The mysterious technical didn't hurt the Tigers when Richmond missed a pair of free throws, keeping Armada's three-point lead with under a minute remaining.

The dagger was sent in when Armada senior Carly Zebelian knocked down two free throws with 30 seconds left to take a 25-20 lead. She also ended her night with nine points.

The first half wasn't a barn-burner by any means, with both teams combining for good defense and tough breaks on the rim, combining for 7-of-31 shooting.

The first quarter saw four different Blue Devils score to push Richmond to an 8-4 lead.

With two minutes left in the second quarter, the Tigers clawed back to tie the game up with a 3-pointer from senior Caitlyn Carlson, notching the game at 10-all.

Armada eventually took a 11-10 lead off a free throw by Zebelian, but it didn't survive the entire half. With 15 seconds left in the half, senior Carlie Thueme hit a layup to bring Richmond into the locker room with a 12-11 lead.

"We just talked about how we needed to get our heads in the game," Gustafson said about the halftime talk. "We didn't have a good offensive had, but defensive we had a great half."​

Contact Matt Sheehan at (810) 989-6267 or msheehan@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @Sheehan_Sports.